MasterCard Money Send From Your BlackBerry—Watch out for Politicians

MasterCard has released its Money Send app for BlackBerry. The new app lets you accept payments from anyone’s credit or debit card, send money to family members, pay for informal goods and services (Craigslist anyone?) and more. Basically, it is MasterCard’s version of a mobile PayPal like service. Of course, with some recent news on how politicians want to start harnessing smartphones for their political goals, keep a tight fist on your money. Read on for the details.

The free MasterCard app is available on the BlackBerry App World site. An iPhone version also exists of course. Besides just the money sending features, the new app promises something that PayPal has not been able to manage yet. Widespread support. A lot more people have MasterCards than they do PayPal cards. While I am sure that PayPal will eventually start to become a driving force in physical payment options, MasterCard already has had a long time to get its service into use. Are you going to trust a MasterCard transaction more than a PayPal one? MasterCard is betting on it.

Check out the MasterCard Money Send app, but keep in mind that according to the blog of Fox News, smartphones are where politicians are going to start campaigning. Remember how big Facebook was last election? Politicians have started rolling out mobile apps, and these apps are being downloaded.

With 14.3% of all registered voters using BlackBerrys (the highest among all smartphone users polled), the platform might see a surge of political apps this coming elecition. Watch out though, who knows until how long you might seeing solicitations for political campaigns through apps. Of course, this begs the question: Will you support your favorite politicians by downloading and installing their apps on your smartphone?

Let me know what you think of MasterCard’s new app and politicians’ new favorite platform in the comments section. Sarah Palin app anyone? How about political donations through MasterCard’s Money Send?